# Mistress Quickly — The Merry Wives of Windsor character guide

> Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mistress Quickly Calling

**First appearance:** 0004-act-i-scene-iii

## Snapshot

Doctor Caius's housekeeper and everyone's go-between, juggling three suitors' errands and one knight's assignations with cheerful duplicity.

## Who they are

Quickly serves Caius, answers to the merry wives, and carries messages for Fenton, Slender, and Falstaff, promising each of them her best efforts and meaning it every time. She is the play's connective tissue, the servant whose access to every household makes her indispensable and whose divided loyalties make her unreliable. Her willingness to run through fire and water for a kind heart, and her habit of forgetting her next errand, keep the plot's many threads tangling and untangling toward the midnight oak.

## In the story

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-i-scene-ii)

Mentioned as the recipient of the letter; she is acquainted with Anne Page.

### [Scene IV: Doctor Caius's House](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-i-scene-iv)

Manages the household and mediates between suitors for Anne Page.

### [Scene II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-ii-scene-ii)

Acts as go-between, delivering messages from Mistress Ford and Mistress Page to Falstaff.

### [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-iv)

Acts as go-between for multiple suitors, promising to help Fenton, Slender, and Doctor Caius.

### [Scene V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-iii-scene-v)

Delivers Mistress Ford's message asking Falstaff to visit again.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-i)

Brings a message from Mistress Ford and provides humorous interruptions during William's Latin lesson.

### [Scene V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-iv-scene-v)

Brings a letter from Mistress Ford and arranges a private meeting with Falstaff.

### [Scene I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-v-scene-i)

Briefly appears, offering to provide a chain and horns, before being dismissed by Falstaff.

### [Scene IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/chapters/act-v-scene-iv)

Dressed in white as the Fairy Queen, part of the masquerade.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/characters/mistress_quickly
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_merry_wives_of_windsor_se/characters